Friend.tech Team Abandons Project - SocialFi Leader's Uncertain Future
The future of friend.tech, a Base project once hailed as the pioneer of the "SocialFi" crypto sector, now hangs in the balance after the friend.tech team seemingly walked away from the project, transferring control to a burn address.
In a recent post, the friend.tech team clarified that the transfer of powers to a burn address was to safeguard against any future changes to fees or functionality. However, this move has been widely perceived by the crypto community as an abandonment of the project, effectively halting any future development.
The community has voiced concerns over what they view as an "excellent rug" orchestrated by the devs and crypto VC firm Paradigm. Investments from Paradigm reportedly fueled friend.tech's success, allowing the platform to amass over $60 million in fees in the past year.
Despite attempts to reassure users in a subsequent post on September 9, where friend.tech confirmed the continued operation of the web app, questions about the project's future sustainability linger.
Friend.tech Team Abandons Project - Financial Insights
According to DeFi Llama, friend.tech has generated $63.4 million in fees since its launch in August 2023. Wallet data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the friend.tech dev team's wallet holds just under $200,000 in various tokens, with significant deposits of $36 million in ethereum to Coinbase over the past eight months.
Another wallet connected to friend.tech also deposited $16 million worth of ethereum to Coinbase around nine months ago, raising further questions about the project's financial activities.
What's Next for Friend.tech?
Prior to the team's departure, friend.tech experienced a decline in daily activities, with revenues plummeting from $2 million per day in September 2023 to just over $2,000 daily in July and August 2024, as reported by DeFi Llama.
Moreover, the FRIEND token launched in May saw a drastic drop in value from an initial high of $3 to a mere $0.08, based on DEXTools data. This steep decline, coupled with a significant decrease in daily revenues, paints a bleak picture for friend.tech's future.
With a 99% decline in daily fees and token value, the outlook for friend.tech seems grim. The project's abandonment by the team and the ensuing lack of development opportunities have cast doubts on its ability to recover.
